Ascent of a Monster
by onuwa
Summary: A Terran scavenger is after a big score in dangerous space that will move him from pauper to prince. That is, if he can live long enough to cash in.


Tare cautiously moved down the long narrow corridor, adjusting his rifle as he crept toward the vessels reactor core. Sweat glistened on his leathery skin and he had to pause from time to time to center himself and push the knot of fear back down from his throat into his belly. On another occasion, he might have been ashamed of such a cowardly display, but this time he knew he might not make it out alive. He should have passed the hulk by. He probably could have found lower hanging fruit in this same battlefield. There are many others here, drifting aimlessly around a dying star.

His outdated and damaged sensors couldn't confirm it, but there was every reason to believe that a formidable Zerg presence remained on this ship, left behind when the swarm had won the battle and moved on. But an operational, if deprecated, Science Ship was too big a score to pass by. Doubly so since Tare was essentially destitute. Even if his transport could make it back to Terran space there was no point in going without a good score, it's not like he could just pick up a day job.

His need for a ship was his Achilles heel, but there was no way he could get by without one, so he tried to maintain a champion vessel. All he has to do is bring the engines back online, clear out the Zerg, and get this Science vessel to the right buyer. Then there won't be a ship in Dominion space out of his budget that he can operate on his own. And he sure as hell wasn't going to pick up a crew, no sane being would serve under him anyway.

Tare stopped midstride and scanned the cross corridor ahead. Something was up there, waiting for him. He couldn't see anything, and the dim emergency lights weren't much help. But he didn't need to see, he could sense the lurking presence ahead, or rather, presences. There were two of them, one to either side of the hall he was moving down and they knew he was coming. _Hunger._ So acute it was painful. Tare pulled back from their minds. These Zerg were feral, with no higher consciousness to guide them they were stuck on this ship with only one another as a food source. Apparently these two were either unwilling or unable to feed upon one another, or they had made some unspoken pact when they sensed the intruder.

Tare reached out again to examine the alien minds. Hydralisks. Probably burrowed into the floor plates, waiting for him. He had never heard of another Ghost being able to identify Zerg species by touching their minds. But this veteran of the Brood Wars was particularly well suited to the task. It was part of the reason he sought his fortune alone in Zerg space. Mentally cutting himself off from the monsters to avoid their senses he activated his personal cloaking device. An electrical sounding snap and a brief dim flash of light accompanied the activation of the faulty device before Tare became near invisible. Another reason he needed a big score. Personal cloaking devices were incredibly expensive on the black market.

The intruder stood in the cross corridor, invisible, but quickly running out of energy to maintain the cloaking field. His enemies were indeed burrowed into the floor, but the damage to the corridors was to such an extent that he had difficulty determining exactly where they were hiding. Briefly, Tare considered moving on, but if he had to retreat it wouldn't do to get caught between two groups of the vicious beasts. He started to sight in on what was the most likely burrow spot and froze in horror. With a loud electrical snap his arms and gun suddenly became visible. The cloaking device had failed.

The sudden appearance of the man in the middle of the cross corridor must have caught the monsters off guard. They hesitated a fraction of a second. Just long enough. As they exploded from their hiding spots and launched a barrage of spikes that shrieked and clattered off the bulkheads Tare recovered and threw himself onto his right shoulder, back the way he had come. Scrambling backwards with his feet and one hand, the ex-soldier threw one of his three frag grenades into the cross corridor. The hydralisks bought him precious seconds as they both tried to claw their way into the narrow hall at the same time, jaws snapping in rage at one another. As the Ghost rose from his back he entered into the routine that had been drilled into his head so long ago at the Confederate Academy. On one knee to steady himself, Tare almost mindlessly lined up a shot on the Zerg that had won out and taken the lead.

An ear shattering boom echoed through the corridors as the grenade detonated, followed closely by a shriek that the veteran could barely hear over the ringing in his ears. He fired shot after shot after shot into the gaping maw and abdomen of the oncoming beast. By the time it had crossed the twelve meters between them it fell, dead. Standing up, Tare saw that the other monster had taken the full brunt of the grenade, its hindquarters taken off by the explosion. One last shot through its monstrous head halted its dying convulsions.

Tare waited for the ringing in his ears to pass and took a moment to reach out once again. Science Ships were large and more open than standard military vessels and the sound of the grenade likely echoed through most of the otherwise quiet hulk, alerting its dread occupants to the intruder. He could sense a multitude of Zerg scrambling about above, below, and distantly on the same level. None seemed to know exactly where the echoing explosion had come from. The Ghost began a near silent jog toward his intended destination. If he could get main power back online he might be able to use the ships security systems to help him eliminate the Zerg on board.

The lone soldier made it farther than he had hoped before sensing another enemy close by, he was almost to the reactor. This time it was a trio of the small, swift, zerglings coming up from behind. Either it had taken them some time to find him or, more likely, they had stopped to feed on the dead hydralisks. Reversing direction and dropping into a crouch, Tare dropped two of them with three shots apiece before the melee bound beasts got close. But they were impossibly fast and the third was almost on him, a flurry of claws and fangs barreling down the corridor. Realizing he couldn't end its life with the rifle in time the Ghost reached out telekinetically with a force that should have been impossible for any Terran and crushed its hideous skull. Trying to recuperate his mental strength Tare quickly walked the last of the corridor and into the reactor room, sweat from exertion making his leathery hide slick against his stealth suit.

Once inside he had planned to seal the blast doors that were intended to protect the rest of the ship from radiation in the event of a leak and give him time to work. That hope was in vain however. The blast doors on both entrances to the room had been ripped away and strewn across the floor at some previous time. Probably to the horror of whomever once owned the splintered human bones that were strewn across the floor. A once over of the reactor showed it intact and functional in a low power mode. He excitedly ran to the nearest functional terminal, praising his luck that one still functioned and forgetting his fear. After reaching out once more to search for threats and finding many, but none too close by, he got to work.

Thankfully the terminal did not ask for a password. Tare could have hacked it if necessary, but it would have required precious time that he probably didn't have. He quickly checked the log to see why the reactor was running low power, it would have been a shame to blow himself up by throwing caution to the wind. After several months of inactivity and no human life showing up on internal scanners the computer had automatically triggered a power reduction. Bringing it back online was a fairly simple matter, but the automated process would require several minutes. Once complete, the security system could be activated from here, assuming it was still functional. However, he would have to hack the authorization and that would take time. Ripping open the steel terminal casing with impossible strength he found the proper connections and spliced in a special device he had taken from a dead Dominion agent a few months back. Tare manipulated the device, punched in several commands on the terminal, and turned to find a defensible position while it broke the security authentication for him.

The Ghost thought of building a barricade with the broken down blast doors but suddenly realized he was out of time. Lost in his work, Tare hadn't sensed a group of zerglings moving on his position until they were throwing themselves through the doorway. On instinct and training he immediately sighted in on the closest target. Two of the group died before a third caught Tare's rifle as it jumped upon him. The veteran twisted away and managed to fire a few rounds into the monster, but it took his gun as it twisted through the air.

The two remaining zerglings practically flew at him. Tare batted the first aside with a psionic blast but the second leapt upon him and sunk its fore claws into his chest. The man screamed with agony as the scythe like claws tore flesh, but they did not penetrate into his vital organs. Any ordinary human would have been slaughtered in that instant. Tare was far from ordinary. He retaliated against the creature by grabbing the scythes and ripping them from its body. Ignoring the damage it jumped up and tried to lock its jaws on his head but Tare caught it by the neck with both hands and drove his own claws in, severing arteries.

A loud and vicious scraping caught the man's, no, the man-monster's attention. The zergling he had battered aside recovered and was trying to charge but its claws slid across the bulkhead like nails on a chalkboard before it gained traction. Tare turned towards it and bared his own short but wicked fangs in a challenge. The chest of his environmental suit hung in tatters from his belt and the wounds in his hard leathery skin were already beginning to heal. The beast screamed and flung itself at him. The warrior caught it by the muzzle with his left hand and as he felt the searing pain of claws digging deeply into his left arm he cut into the zerglings belly with the claws of his right and eviscerated it.

A monster of a man stood in a pool of blood and carnage, panting hard, surrounded by dead alien horrors that could have been his kin. Gore dripped from his claws. Sweat ran down his body. Greenish blood trickled from his self-closing wounds. Thick black, spine like hair hung wildly around his shoulders, the knot that held it having broken in the fray. Looking at the wounds he had received, Tare had never been so happy to be infested. Otherwise, he would surely have been dead.

Slow steady beeping made itself known from the terminal he had been working on. Tare quickly ripped some of the tattered rags away from his chest and wrapped them tightly around his wounded arm as he stepped over to the console. _Access Granted_ read the screen. A quick review of the security system showed that it was twenty-eight percent operational, mostly away from the central areas of the ship. Sensing danger approaching, he brought the system online and instructed it to target Zerg bio signatures. Of course, that meant it would target him as well, but there were no active defenses remaining in this room and it couldn't be helped anyway. The former Ghost plotted out a path, and an alternate, and another alternate, which would take him to the command bridge while avoiding the active security systems. From there he could bring the engines on line and plot a course.

He removed the device from inside the terminal and retrieved his rifle. Checking it for damage, he was glad to find that it was fully functional. Reaching out again, he noted many spread out presences and a few small groups, but none directly in his path. Wary of letting his guard down again he double timed it through the next corridor and headed to the command deck. With power restored the corridors were now well lit with hard white light that made Tare uncomfortable. A short while later he halted in the entrance of a research lab.

Tare sensed something…_wrong? …odd?... _He wasn't sure what it was but there was definitely a psionic presence there. It didn't really seem Zerg, nor did he remember sensing any Protoss like this. The presence was powerful, but unfocused. _Strange._ The infested Terran's heart rate increased to a dull pounding in his ears and he cautiously slid into the lab. Most of the lights were out, only a few remained in the center of the room and cast the outer edges into eerie shadows that seemed to shift as Tare moved. A smell like fungus and decay both repulsed and drew the former human in. And the heat, it must have been several degrees hotter here than in the corridor and was getting warmer the further in he went. The research lab consisted of a fairly large central room filled with rows of equipment that he couldn't identify. Whatever the scientists had used in their attempted defense against the Zerg seemed to have caused powerful explosions in multiple places around the room. Tare knew from experience that the outer walls would be lined with locking lab rooms for more delicate or dangerous experiments. Moving along the right hand wall he started walking on something spongy he couldn't immediately identify. Just as he was about to flick on his light he recognized the material and the smell. Creep.

Suddenly, this felt even more wrong. Creep sustained the Zerg and their organic structures. If it was here, the zerglings and hydralisks shouldn't have been starving and feeding upon one another. The knot of fear he had repressed through training and sheer will clawed its way back into his chest and Tare couldn't force it back down. He alternated his sixth sense between the strange presence and sweeping the area. Still nothing immediately threatening, but he couldn't push back the feeling that he was in mortal peril. _Crunch. _

Something snapped beneath Tare's boot and he froze. After two deep breaths, the terrified veteran crouched down and felt under him. Bones were protruding from the creep which had absorbed and metabolized whatever had died here. After some feeling around and cutting the middle finger of his left hand deeply he determined it was a Zerg carcass of some kind. A few more steps. _Snap_. Another Zerg carcass. _What the hell is going on here?_ The creep should be feeding the Zerg, not feeding on them. Then he sensed something near the strange presence at the far side of the room, but moving away from it. _Detaching from it?_ He readied his weapon and visually scanned the room from his crouching position.

Something shambled into the room from one of the side labs where the odd presence remained. Tare could distinctly make it out as a separate entity now. It hadn't detached from the _thing_, it had been hiding in the shadow of the strange presence. The former Ghost lined up a shot but didn't fire. This thing felt very familiar somehow and as it reached the edge of the light its silhouette became somewhat visible. _Human! _Tare stood and immediately regretted it. The motion attracted the silhouette which began a silent charge across the room. _Infested_.

This infested Terran was nothing like Tare. It was like the vast majority of infested Terrans. He had been the product of a United Earth Directorate experiment with the Zerg during the Brood War and had escaped with his mind intact when the UED fell to Kerrigan. Humans infested directly by the Zerg, with a few notable exceptions, were twisted body and mind. As much monsters as hydralisks and zerglings, worse even. They were living, running, bombs and one was running right at Tare.

Shots rang out and the monstrosity fell near the center of the lab. The veteran ducked down as the explosion scattered more equipment in a wide radius. He turned on his barrel light in time to see five more Infested Terrans charging him, spaced far enough apart to detonate without killing each other. _Oh hell._ More shots rang out and one of the monsters fell, then detonated. The other four were too close, he couldn't kill them without feeling the burn of their explosions. Tare stood and ran full kilter out the door on the other side of the lab. If a single one of his pursuers got too close even he wouldn't survive the blast. Flying down a long corridor the former Ghost got far enough ahead to turn and fire into his enemies. The lead beast fell and the others seemed to vanish.

Relief flooded the man as he thought the explosion killed them all but was quickly replaced by resolve as he sensed the presence of the three others taking an alternative route to him. Continuing his run down the hallway Tare was suddenly thrown to the floor in agony as a hidden flame thrower swung out of a wall panel and doused him with hellfire. It was part of the security system. The former Ghost reeled back and rolled in the tight quarters to extinguish the flames. He recovered just in time to see his three remaining pursuers coming at him, opposite the flame thrower that had again hidden itself. A faint smile played across his charred lips as he turned and ran back the way he had just come.

Another boom. Tare looked back to see the flamethrower alcove destroyed and only two running bombs coming for him. He resumed his pace but at the next cross corridor, near where he had shot one of the infested, he ran smack into a hydralisk coming around the corner which was closely followed by a few zerglings. They both fell against the walls but the hydralisk recovered first as the zerglings tried to push past it. It reared up and readied a volley of spines. Clank, clank, clank. The best turned and, seeing a more dire threat, launched the spines into the oncoming human monster. Tare scrambled away as fast as he could on all fours, his rifle dragging from the tether he had reaffixed after the zergling tore it lose. The explosion threw him rump over head and he landed in perfect position to see hydralisk guts scattered about and the zerglings retreating the way they had come. Then the last infested Terran rounded the corner and ran at him.

There was no time to move. The infested Ghost summoned all the psionic power he possessed and threw it into the oncoming monster forcing it back and breaking open its organic chemical containers. When the chemicals touched the last running bomb went off. Tare must have blacked out from the exertion. As he came to the zerglings were charging back down the corridor, the reason for their retreat gone. Still lying on his back and seeing them upside down from his vantage point, he lobbed one of the two remaining grenades into the group.

The Man-Monster awoke to the sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones. As his vision swam into focus he saw a corridor filled with carnage and a single zergling, minus a back leg, feasting on the dead. Tare allowed himself a few moments to fully awaken before very slowly maneuvering his weapon into position. Rapidly, he rolled onto his stomach and brought his weapon into line. A short burst of fire added one more to the dead before the zergling could react. Filling his lungs and stifling a grunt of pain the Ghost forced himself up and began a stumble that worked its way into a walk back toward the now (hopefully) unprotected presence in the lab.

Tare swept the research lab with his gun mounted light, silently cursing the loss of his night vision goggles some time back. He could see better in the dark than any unaided pure human, but not, he thought, so well as most Zerg. Nothing leapt out at him as he worked his way back over the spongy creep towards the strange presence. It was in one of the side labs, but the door had been blown open. Likely, it seemed, by one of the explosive infested Terrans. As he cautiously approached a feint blue light ignited and grew brighter. Peeking through the hole in the blast door, Tare's light extinguished of its own accord and he halted as his jaw slackened.

A slight tang like ionized atmosphere wafted out of the room. Greyish Creep grew thick along the floor into the three closest corners of the room. At those points massive crystal shards rested against walls and was half covered by Creep. It was from these, which Tare thought were the broken pieces of Protoss crystal, that the blue light emanated. But they were not the source of the presence. In the furthest corner of the room was a gray-black pillar that resonated with invisible power and seemed to somehow feed the Protoss crystal shards while at the same time repel the Creep. Feeling drawn to the strange power, Tare slogged to the center of the room, eyes fixated on the strange pillar. There he dropped to his knees and lost consciousness.

Something sharp rubbed Tares arm. He awoke to find himself lying face down in the center of the room. He looked towards the sharp object, his psionic senses overwhelmed by the power in the room. It was another hydralisk but the beast made no move towards him. Instead, it was fixated on the strange pillar, seemingly oblivious to the being next to him. That changed when the startled warrior jumped to his feet. The Zerg monstrosity turned and launched a volley of spines that the Ghost narrowly avoided by flinging himself at the pillar. Upon making contact his mind and body was flooded with psionic energy.

As Tare tried to break away from the object and end the agony coursing through him his mind sought an outlet for the energy. The infested Terran touched the minds of all the Zerg on the ship and many more stranded in the neighboring vessels. His consciousness expanded far beyond anything he could have previously imagined. Tare became one with the other monsters. His pain was their pain. Their hunger was his hunger. His intellect was their intellect. Their eyes were his eyes.

The pillar crumbled to dust as its energy was expended. The glow emanating from the Protoss crystals died. Tare watched himself slowly standing up, fighting to suppress the ache that filled his body and mind. He opened his eyes and looked upon the hydralisk whose eyes he had been viewing himself through. The beast silently acknowledged his presence before turning and leaving the room.


End file.
